


Out of Class

by ChickenXD



Category: Hatoful Kareshi | Hatoful Boyfriend
Genre: High School, M/M, Teacher-Student Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-25
Packaged: 2018-05-15 04:37:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5771611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChickenXD/pseuds/ChickenXD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Isa falls in love with his hot damn bio teacher and shit goes down</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

_ A typical school day. _

 

“Good morning, class!”

The whole class stood up and bowed down, “Good morning.”

A brown-haired old man entered the class, followed by a blue-haired man. The blue-haired man looked around the class, at all the students around him, a friendly smile on his face. He was holding a few thick books in his arms – 

“As you guys know, Asahi-sensei, your biology teacher, has resigned because of his family matters,” the brown-haired man explained, “Kawara Ryuuji-sensei here will replace him, and so he will be your homeroom teacher, too.”

“Nice to meet all of you!” Ryuuji greeted cheerfully, “I hope we can all work together well for the next few months!”

 

_ How boring.  _

 

Isa Souma rested his face on the desk as he watched the new teacher – Kawara, is it – put down his books on the desk, and then wrote his name on the board. 

Ryuuji doesn’t seem too… convincing. Not that Isa ever thought that highly of his other teachers, but at least all of them come to school properly dressed and professional-looking no matter how good (or bad) their teaching methods are.

Ryuuji, meanwhile, comes to class with his unkempt, greasy hair, wearing a dirty lab coat – his books had various papers sticking out of them, and the papers in his folders were spilling out onto the desk. 

“Since this is our first day, I guess I’ll just introduce myself,” Ryuuji said, sitting on the table – “Well… what do you guys want to know about me?”

A girl raised his hand, and Ryuuji turned to her, smiling. 

“Ah! Wait, let me try to guess your name…” Ryuuji fished through his pile of documents, and took out a piece of paper – “You’re… Sakamoto Yui.”

“Yes, sir,” the girl who raised her hand confirmed. 

“Yay!” Ryuuji threw his arms in the air, like an excited child. “What’s your question, then?”

“How old are you, sensei, and are you married?”

“I’m twenty eight, and I’m still a free man!” Ryuuji scratched his head, “Do I look that old?”

The next questions seem to just come in a rush – nobody raised their hands to wait anymore.

“Where did you work before, sensei?” “Did you know Asahi-sensei?” “How did you…”

“Whoa! You guys are really curious!” Ryuuji remarked excitedly. “It’s been a while since I work in a place like this! Well, the last place I worked for is a university…”

Surprised gasps came from around the room – Isa raised his eyebrows, not expecting that answer. 

_ Someone like this worked for a university? _

“It’s… kind of a research lab in a university,” Ryuuji explained, “Have you guys ever heard of Takaba Labs? It’s a part of the Earth Crawlers Research initiative! We do stuff in cooperation with University of Hawks, too!”

“Why did you leave, sensei?”

“Well, they’re stopping the research because of ethical concerns,” Ryuuji replied, still cheerful – “I don’t know if it will ever be continued – so I thought, why not try teaching?

“But you guys seem like really good students, so I’m glad to be here!”

 

The short homeroom period ended just like that – Ryuuji bid farewell to the entire class, and promised to be back after lunch – which is the period for biology anyway. 

Isa was reading his book about astrophysics – he’d reached this part about the magnitude of stars, and it has some equation and its explanations – 

“Isa Souma!”

Isa turned to the voice – Nishikikouji Tohri, who was sitting behind him, was looking over his shoulder. 

“What?”

“What do you think of that guy?” Tohri asked, “The new biology teacher?”

“He’s fine,” Isa replied curtly. He turned back to his book, “As long as he can teach, I’m cool.”

“Don’t you think it’s cool?” Tohri asked excitedly, “Him working at Takaba Labs and everything?”

“What, because your mum works there too?”

“Exactly! I’m going to ask her about this guy!”

“You know, Tohri-kun, he might be great and all in that lab, but he’s just our teacher now,” Isa said coldly, “He’s just going to teach us, give us tests, and then write us report cards. It doesn’t matter.”

 

Isa, like a lot of us, is tired of school at this point. 

Being a senior, he’s tired of doing homework and doing tests, and just wants to graduate. Especially since he’ll most likely end up being the valedictorian. 

School is just a boring routine at this point – the same faces everywhere, the same teachers, the same things he has to do. 

 

_ People kept saying how much they missed high school once it was over… _

_ But not me. I won’t miss anything about this place. _

 

“Ahh!”

The door reopened a few seconds later, and Ryuuji popped his head in, reading from a piece of paper. 

“I almost forgot! Is Isa Souma here?”

Isa raised his hand, and Ryuuji immediately saw him and smiled. 

“So… I heard you’re the leader of the Science Club, yeah?”

“...yes.” Isa gave a nod. 

“So it says here that I’m going to supervise that club,” Ryuuji continued, “Can we meet during lunch, just to sort of talk about what we should do?”

“Well…” Isa could feel everyone staring at him now because he’s got Ryuuji’s full attention, and it sure was awkward. “Sure, but…”

“Awesome! I’ll be in my office, next to Kenzaburou-sensei’s, alright?”

Isa didn’t have time to say anything when Ryuuji had once again left and closed the door. 

_ What a weird teacher _ , Isa thought as he returned his attention to his astrophysics book. 

 

Lunchtime came pretty quickly. 

Everyone tidied up their books and left, trying to find a place to eat. The rooftop is a rather nice spot, on sunny days – students like going there because they can be as noisy as they want without disturbing other teachers. The cafeteria is nice, too, only it’s not big enough to contain all the students at once – freshmen usually like to eat there. The troublemaker students usually go to the back of the school to… either do drugs, or try to escape the school, or find other kids to bully. 

“You’re going to see Kawara-sensei?”

“Yes,” Isa replied while putting his pens back into their case. “I don’t think it’ll be a long meeting.”

“You don’t wanna eat first?” Tohri asked, “I’m sure Kawara-sensei will understand that you’re hungry…”

“I’m not hungry yet.”

Tohri was gazing at Isa now, the concern apparent in their eyes. Isa turned to look at them, feeling somewhat annoyed. 

“Don’t stare at me like that.”

“You know, Isa,” Tohri sighed, “You didn’t eat breakfast this morning either.”

“I did.”

“Drinking a glass of milk doesn’t count.”

Isa couldn’t say anything else – that was indeed the only thing he consumed this morning. Not because he didn’t have time or anything – he just had no appetite, and wasn’t feeling hungry. 

“Hey.” Tohri took Isa’s hand, their voice much softer now. “Everything okay?”

Isa gave a nod. 

Even if this seems abnormal to other people, Isa somehow felt… like it was fine. Like this is a normal part of his life – it’s fine to not eat, as long as you’re not feeling hungry, right? No harm in it at all. 

“Tohri-kun! Souma-kun!”

They turned to the voice, and saw two students walking in – one of them had black hair, and was wearing a red scarf in addition to the uniform. and following him was a blond student, wearing a yellow scarf. 

“Let’s go eat lunch together at the roof!” the blond student offered, “They have pasta today! It looks delicious!”

“I’m going to see Kawara-sensei,” Isa refused politely, “Sorry, Kazuaki-kun, Hitori-kun.”

“Ahh, the new biology teacher?” 

Nanaki Kazuaki, the blond, cocked his head to the side while smiling cluelessly.

“He’s really nice! He explains things in a way I can understand easily! I like him more than Asahi-sensei!” 

“What are you going to see him for?”

Uzune Hitori, the black-haired student, seemed somewhat concerned. 

“He’s going to be the new supervisor for the Science Club,” Isa replied. “Maybe he just wants to know what we were doing, who the members are, and all that… it shouldn’t take long.”

“You better come see us at the rooftop after the meeting, Isa Souma!” Tohri demanded, “And you better get yourself some food by then!”

 

Ryuuji’s office was, for some reason, not the same room the previous biology teacher had occupied. It was still easy to find, since it was the only one that didn’t have a nameplate… yet. 

It was located at the end of the hallway at the fourth floor, which is pretty much where all the teacher’s offices are. While the teachers do meet every morning in their meeting room, each teacher has a private office. 

Isa knocked on the door twice, and a voice called from inside, “Door’s open!”

 

Ryuuji was reading something while eating a sandwich when Isa walked into the room. 

His office was the same size as all the other teachers’, but it felt somewhat smaller since Ryuuji still had a few boxes lying around, waiting to be unpacked. Those he’d unpacked seem to contain nothing but textbooks and teaching materials…

“Oh, Isa-kun!” Ryuuji smiled upon seeing Isa, and pulled a chair from the corner. “Come here, come here! Sorry it’s messy!”

“...it’s alright.”

“Did you eat anything before coming here?”

Isa shook his head, “I’ll get some food after our meeting.”

That’s a lie. 

_ If I don’t feel hungry even after this, I’ll just go straight to the roof and tell Tohri I ate.  _

Isa noticed a few journals on Ryuuji’s desk – seems like they were all about medical research and medicines. Some of the pages were marked – 

“So what do you guys usually do?” Ryuuji asked, “Is it like a study group, or do you guys do experiments, or...?”

“It really depends on the members,” Isa replied. “Sometimes we do experiments when we feel like it, or… we just talk about some interesting science things we found. We used to meet every Tuesday and Thursday, so usually Tuesday is time for experiments, and Thursday… we just chat.”

“Hmm…” Ryuuji ate some more sandwich while taking notes on what Isa said – although Isa wasn’t really sure what notes could be taken. Maybe Ryuuji was writing something else? 

“So how about the members?” Ryuuji asked, “How many were there?”

“There were seven of us, including me, but I think a lot of them already switched clubs.” Isa sighed, “I can’t switch, since it says on the documents that I’m the leader.”

“Do you think they’ll want to come back to the club?” Ryuuji asked, sounding worried, “Can we still get people to join?”

Isa shook his head, “I don’t know.”

Ryuuji wrote down a few more notes, and then smiled as he turned to Isa again. 

“Well, it’d be really nice if we can! We can design a few experiments, try to make them work… who knows, we might be able to discover something awesome!”

_...I wouldn’t be so optimistic about that if I were you.  _

_ I mean, we don’t even know if anyone will join again aside from me… _

Still, Ryuuji seemed excited, so Isa didn’t say anything – 

It felt… almost heartwarming, seeing such enthusiasm. Perhaps because Isa had been lacking that for a while…

“That’s about all I want to ask about, Isa-kun!” Ryuuji opened his drawer, which was filled with candy, chocolate, and other snacks. Any dietician looking at this drawer would probably cringe at the amount of calories those foods contain – 

“You want some?” 

“No, it’s alright,” Isa refused politely, “I’m not hungry at all.”

“You don’t have to eat them now, you know?” Ryuuji asked, “Just take one or two, and eat them later! Or give them to your friends!”

“Well…”

 

And so Isa left the room three minutes later, holding four candies in his hands. He’d picked them randomly – well, three of them would be given to others anyway.

Isa made his way to the rooftop, and found the group sitting on a bench by the water tanks – Kazuaki and Hitori were playing something on their phones, while Tohri was looking over Kazuaki’s shoulder. Isa quietly sat down next to Tohri, and took out the candies from his pockets. 

“AHHHHH!!! I missed one note!” Kazuaki screamed a few minutes later – “How… how could this happen? That was the last of my LP, too…”

“Kazuaki, you got an S, I think that’s good enough of a score…”

“But I’ve… I’ve always wanted to get a full combo on this song!” Some tears were brimming at Kazuaki’s eyes – “Everyone has gotten a full combo on it… even Hitori…”

“Are you guys playing Love Live again?” Isa sighed, “Seriously, Kazuaki, that’s all you’ve been talking about for… a year now, maybe.”

“You should try playing it too, Souma-kun!” Kazuaki said, “And then you’ll understand why it’s so much fun!”

“I refuse.”

Isa could immediately feel Hitori glaring at him – Hitori is overprotective towards Kazuaki, as always… 

They could hear Kazuaki start sobbing at the harshness of Isa’s words. Hitori wrapped his arms around Kazuaki’s shoulders and pulled him close, as if trying to keep him away from Isa, the enemy. 

“I… I mean…” Isa took out the candies from his pocket, “Anyway… you want some candy, Kazuaki-kun?”

“Ohh!” Kazuaki immediately smiled again, as if he wasn’t about to burst into tears a few seconds ago – “Yes please!”

“Where did you get them from?” Tohri asked, “And did you get food?”

“I did,” Isa lied, “Kawara-sensei made me take these.”

Tohri stared at Isa for a while, as if inspecting him, and then sighed as they turned to look at the candies Isa was sharing. Kazuaki took a marshmallow, and turned to Hitori – “Which one do you want, Hitori-kun?”

“Anything’s fine,” Hitori replied as he randomly took another candy, leaving only a chocolate bar and a milk candy in Isa’s hand. Isa put the chocolate bar in his pocket, and handed the milk candy to Tohri. 

“Wait, this is unfair, Isa Souma! Why didn’t I get to choose?”


	2. Chapter 2

Isa walked into his room and closed the door.

School’s over, so what better to do than go back to the dorm and sleep?

Tohri would usually go back to their room before Isa, but there was something Tohri had to attend to today, so Isa could get some peace and quiet.

Isa took off his blazer, put it on his chair, and laid down on his bed.

 

_I’m going to graduate in less than a year._

_Tohri is all set and certain about where he wants to go, but… not me. I don’t even know what I want to do._

_I certainly don’t want to go home if possible. There’s nothing for me there anyway…_

_How annoying._

_I don’t want to be here, but I have no idea where I want to go either._

_I simply hate everything in this world._

_My family doesn’t care about me nor what I want, no matter how good I am. No matter how hard I try to be perfect._

_Why am I even still trying? So they don’t hate me even more?_

_Or is it because I don’t have anyone else who cares?_

 

_Pathetic._

_Nobody will miss me if I die anyway._

~•~

“How was your first day at work, Kawara-san?”

“Ahh, Kenzaburou-sensei!” Ryuuji turned to his coworker, who had just left one of the classes.

“It’s great! I like my students!”

“Is that so…” Kenzaburou nodded with a smile, “I hope that enthusiasm won’t wear off over time, Kawara-san.”

Kenzaburou Urushihara is a rather old literature teacher – he’d been teaching for thirty years or so now, and he’d probably retire in a few years. He’s perhaps the oldest teacher in school – but unlike teachers who are jaded from teaching, Kenzaburou still had a very calm, serious vibe, and acts almost fatherly towards everyone despite not being married himself.

“Any interesting students?” Kenzaburou asked as they walked upstairs – “If I remember, you’re a homeroom teacher too, yes?”

“Yes! There’s this student in my class,” Ryuuji said, “His name is Isa Souma. I heard he’s the top of his class?”

“Ah yes, Isa-kun…” Kenzaburou nodded solemnly. “I taught him last year. He’s a good student. I mean, you hear a lot about kids who are so smart that they don’t pay attention in class and just play around – he’s not like that.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Ryuuji said, smiling – “Seems like I’ll be working with him quite a lot, since I’m supervising his club as well.”

“Isa Souma, that boy… has been through a lot,” Kenzaburou said, his voice softer – “I think he’d need a lot of support.”

“Did something happen in his family?”

“Who knows…” Kenzaburou shook his head, “He didn’t want to tell me, but it was obvious that something happened.”

~•~

“Isa Souma!”

Tohri burst into the room to find Isa sitting on his desk, reading a book. Isa turned to Tohri, uninterested, before he noticed –

Tohri had their hair tied into pigtails with white ribbons, and they were wearing a pink dress with a balloon skirt, with purple lacing and a white layer underneath. They were wearing a hat… perhaps? It looked like strawberry cupcake with some ribbons – any child would’ve picked it up and tried to eat it. There was a purple belt with laces around their waist, and they were wearing white socks with pom poms around the top –

Kazuaki was walking behind Tohri – he seemed proud and happy, seeing Tohri’s almost perfect cosplay.

“How does this dress look?”

“...good,” Isa replied. He couldn’t dent it – it was indeed a beautiful dress, and he knew Tohri spent quite a lot of time sewing and decorating it.

“Nico nico nii!” Tohri folded the middle and ring fingers on both their hands, and striked a pose. Kazuaki clapped his hands excitedly –

“Perfect, Tohri-kun! You’re exactly like Nico!”

“Ha! Finally!” Tohri spun around, making the ribbons on their dress flutter. “I should make you a dress one day too, Isa Souma! I bet you’d look cute!”

“...I’ll pass.”

“Souma-kun would look good in Eli’s SR Idolized #545… or…”

“...I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“Anyway!” Tohri turned to leave, “I’ll go to the club room to store this away. They’re serving dinner soon, so see you there!”

Tohri walked out of the room with Kazuaki, and closed the door. Isa sighed as he turned back to his book – he was supposed to write an essay analyzing the symbolism in the story… or whatever. He was never really interested in literature…

 

_Kazuaki-kun is really good at these things, isn’t he? Maybe I should compare my essay to his when he’s done with it._

_...see?_

_Everyone has something they like, be it a shitty online game or cosplay. Whether or not it’s something they’re good at, they keep pursuing it._

_I’m good at everything, and yet… I don’t love doing them._

~•~

Tohri returned to their room about thirty minutes later, having changed back into their usual uniform, minus the blazer. They were carrying the cosplay dress they wore earlier –

“You’re still here, Isa Souma?” Tohri asked as they hung the dress in the wardrobe – 75% of the clothes hung in there belongs to Tohri, and the rest to Isa. “They’re starting to bring out the food, you know.”

“...I’m not hungry,” Isa replied, without looking up from his book.

Tohri walked over, leaning over the desk to see what Isa was doing.

“Isn’t this due next week? I haven’t even touched the book.”

“You should,” Isa replied coldly, “It’s a pretty long book.”

“Why are you doing this now, anyway?” Tohri asked, “I mean, I’ve seen you finish reading Brothers Karamazov in two days. You can do this the night before and get a perfect score.”

“...what’s wrong with doing it now?”

“...Isa Souma.”

Tohri’s voice was much softer, and Isa noticed their eyes were more sympathetic.

Before Isa could say anything else, Tohri had held Isa tight in their arms, letting Isa’s head rest on their chest.

Tohri felt warm, and Isa could faintly smell the rose perfume they used – but it was rather uncomfortable, suddenly being hugged like that.

“You don’t have to hide anything from me, okay?” Tohri said, “You’ve been even harsher on yourself recently… something must’ve happened, right?”

Isa only sighed as he pushed Tohri away.

“It’s none of your business.”

“We’re roommates, Isa Souma!” Tohri pouted, “If anything, I’m supposed to help you through these trying times!”

“...I appreciate the thought.”

 

Isa seems like a perfectly normal, ideal student – he wakes up early every morning, follows the dress code perfectly, goes to class, gets a perfect score in every subject, and then go home, study hard, and then go to bed – 

– that perfection was almost eerie.

 

Tohri and Isa grabbed their food – dinner tonight was fried rice, with shrimp, scallops, and some fish fillet.

“You’re not eating as much as usual, Isa Souma,” Tohri remarked while grabbing an apple – “You didn’t eat breakfast and lunch either, are you not hungry?”

“...I did eat lunch.”

“No you didn’t!” Tohri sighed, “You think it’s so easy to fool me? If you had eaten lunch, you would have your ID card with you at the rooftop – but you didn’t!”

“I did,” Isa insisted, “I put it back in my pencil case after I ate because I passed the class on my way – ”

“I’ve been in the same class with you for a year and a half now, Isa Souma, and you never go back to class during lunch!”

Isa sighed – seems like Tohri was onto him after all.

“So what?” he asked, “Even if I didn’t eat as much as I should, it wouldn’t kill me. Our body has fat supply which should be able to keep our body going for a few days – ”

Tohri didn’t reply – they took another scoop of rice, and dumped it onto Isa’s plate.

“...you know I won’t be able to eat this all, yes?” Isa scooped back some of the rice onto the buffet, “I’ll be fine.”

_...so they are feeling particularly girly._

Tohri, in their own words, is “too fabulous for the gender box”. Whenever they got one of those forms that had the choice “male” or “female”, they’d select both, if possible.

What is it called again… genderfluid? Tohri would have times when they felt like a girl – girl Tohri would speak softly, yell about 50% less, and is calmer in general towards others, Isa felt. Sometimes they’d call Isa just “Isa” or “Souma”, instead of his full name.

Boy Tohri, on the other hand, would yell about 50% more, be extremely pissy, and sometimes even annoy the teachers. Not that they can't calm down – they just speak more, which made it seem like they are angry.

Luckily, most of the time Tohri stands in the sweet equilibrium spot – still, being their roommate, Isa had learnt how to recognize their ‘modes’. It just seemed like a mood swing at first, but once Tohri explained it to him, Isa started to understand it better.

They sat on a table near the window of the dining hall – the place was filling up quickly, so someone would probably kick them out if they stayed too long.

“I asked my mum about Kawara-sensei, by the way,” Tohri said, “She said he’s a nice person – his morals may be a bit questionable, though.”

“It’s always like that in the field of science,” Isa sighed, “If you want to make a medicine, well, someone has to drink it. Even if they die, it’s all for the sake of science.”

“That’s cold!” Tohri ate some of the rice, “By the way, what did he call you for?”

“Just asking about my club,” Isa replied, “I think all the old members have switched now, though, so who knows if we’ll even get any members…”

“I can join!”

Isa sighed as he stared at Tohri judgmentally – Tohri was still smiling cheerfully, like what they said was perfectly reasonable –

“You’re in two clubs already.”

“Well, Kazuaki’s Love Live fanclub only meets every Friday, and the Theatre group meets every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday… so I guess I’m free on Thursday! When do you guys meet?”

“...Tuesday and Thursday.”

“See? I can join too!” Tohri clapped their hands happily, “Tell me when you start it, alright?”

Isa could only sigh – maybe there’s no harm in Tohri joining?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sweats may i have an opinion on how i wrote tohri.... i've never written them as genderfluid before so thanks.....


	3. Chapter 3

“...hey, Tohri-kun.”

“Hmm?”

“Why are you following me?”

“Well!” Tohri placed their hand on their chest proudly, “Aren’t you going to the science lab for the first meeting of the revived Science Club?”

“Not really,” Isa replied. “Kawara-sensei just told me to meet him in the lab.”

“What could it be for, other than for the first meeting of the club?’ 

“Well, I haven’t told him who the other members are,” Isa explained. “And he’s only met me last week. It’s too quick to actually begin anything, you know?”

They arrived at the lab minutes later – it was a room at the corner of the third floor. Nobody really goes there except for lab days, so it was a rather deserted area…

Isa opened the door, and found a figure in white inside, sitting by a bench. There were a few machines and glassware there – someone must’ve taken them out of the storage room. 

Well, of course, since Ryuuji was sitting there, looking at a rock in a beaker. 

“Oh, Isa-kun!” He noticed Tohri behind Isa – “And you’re…”

“My name is…”

“Wait wait wait, I’m trying to remember.” Ryuuji put down his beaker and stared at Tohri long and hard – “You’re in my class… you always sit behind Isa-kun, and you talk quite a lot…

“Nishikikouji, is it?” 

“Precisely!” Tohri nodded, satisfied, “Please never forget my name again, Kawara-sensei!”

“...you don’t have to remember their name – it’s unimportant .”

“What was that for, Isa Souma?! Names are very important! Unlike you, I take pride in my name – ”

“I heard a lot about you from your mum!” Ryuuji claimed as he turned to look at his rocks – “She’s really proud of you!”

Being complimented seem to make Tohri happy – they smiled sheepishly, and Isa noticed a slight pink tinge on their cheeks. 

“Is that so?” they asked sheepishly, “I’m… I’m glad to hear that!”

“She said you really like engineering! Making guns and lasers!” Ryuuji threw his arms in the air, “Physics is really exciting though – you can make things go boom! Too bad it’s not my area of expertise…

“Are you going to join Takaba Labs once you graduate too?”

Tohri shrugged – “I don’t know yet… my mum would probably like me to.”

“You should! It’s a really exciting place to work at!” Ryuuji turned to Isa, “You too, Isa-kun! If you guys want, I can write reference letters…”

“...thank you,” Isa replied while faking a smile – hopefully it did look like a smile. 

“Anyway! I called you guys here to talk about the club!” Ryuuji continued, “So I’ve found the list of all the old members… can you ask them about coming back, Isa-kun?”

“I’ll try.” 

Isa pointed at Tohri, “And Tohri-kun would like to join. They can only come on Thursdays, though – ”

“That’s wonderful!” Ryuuji clapped his hands excitedly, “This is quite exciting, isn’t it?

“The form’s over there,” Ryuuji said as he pointed at the teacher’s desk, where he had dumped his books too – most of his rock had dissolved now, leaving only a small piece at the bottom. Maybe it was some kind of calcite? “And… what kind of experiment do you guys usually do, Isa-kun?”

“The simple ones… Asahi-sensei usually designed them,” Isa replied. 

“For our first experiment, what do you say we ewoowoo some frogs?”

_...ewoowoo? _

_ Is that even a word? _

“Um, sorry, Kawara-sensei…” Tohri raised their hand,  about to ask the rather obvious question – “But… what’s an ‘ewoowoo’?”

“It’s a process in which you make a posterior oral cavity at the head of an organism – in this case, frogs! Pacman frogs are pretty easy subjects, but I’ve tried it before on…”

“Wait,” Isa cut in, “Does… does that not kill the frog?”

“No, of course not!” 

“What about the brain?” Isa asked, “In order to make an oral cavity at the back of the head, I imagine we have to cut a bit of the occipital lobe or cerebellum…”

“The occipital lobe is no big deal! As long as there are parts of it left, the brain can rewire its functions! As for the cerebellum…”

“Wait,” Tohri cut in with a sigh, “There’s no way an organism can have two mouths…”

“Why so?”

Tohri found themselves under Ryuuji’s intense glare – it was almost unnerving, in a way, being having a pair of red eyes staring at you. That said, nothing seemed particularly aggressive about Ryuuji’s glare – in fact, it looked like Ryuuji was very interested in making Tohri his first ewoowoo subject, just to prove that it can work. 

“Uh, well…”

“So far, I’ve done it so that the back mouth is connected to the pharynx, so it can swallow food and take in air! Maybe it’s not wise to eat from both mouths at once, though, since it could overload the esophagus and make you vomit out some of the food – ”

~•~

They left the room half an hour later, with Tohri looking like they’d just seen a ghost and Isa calmly writing something on the member list Ryuuji had just given him. 

“How are you so undisturbed by this, Isa Souma?” Tohri asked, “Those experiments he suggested… none of them sounds legal!”

“I don’t see what’s illegal,” Isa said with a sigh, “I mean, we’re not doing it on humans.

“Think about it this way, Tohri-kun,” he continued, “We’re being taught by someone who once worked in Takaba Labs… I think whatever he teaches us, no matter how simple it might seem to him, will be a pretty valuable experience for us.”

This reasoning seemed to have made sense for Tohri, seeing that they immediately calmed down a little. Tohri looked at Isa for a while, and then at the lab door behind him – 

“...well, why not,” they sighed. “But we won’t get arrested or anything, right?”

“He’s the one who will design the experiments, so if anyone’s getting arrested, it’s him.”

“Fair enough.”

They started to walk away from the lab. The school was pretty much empty at this time, half an hour after the school ends – everyone would be in their clubs, or at the dorm. 

“By the way, for the school trip,” Tohri said, “I signed up to room with Hitori and Kazuaki.”

“...school trip?”

Isa could faintly remember the details – it wasn’t really related to academics, so his brain had probably dismissed it as ‘unimportant’ and decided to not keep it in his memory. 

“It’s next year, right?”

“Next year?!” Tohri sighed as they dramatically placed their hand on their forehead, “Ohh, Isa Souma, what happened to your head? It’s in a month!”

“You deal with it,” Isa said with a sigh. “I mean, it’s not that important.”

“What do you mean it’s not that important?!” Tohri asked, enraged – “This is the last school trip we’ll ever have, Isa Souma! We must make it memorable!”

“...where are we going again?”

“To Mount Fuji!” 

Tohri seemed awfully excited – Isa just kept walking next to them without saying a word. 

“Can you imagine how romantic it will be, all of us sitting in the onsen by the moonlight, looking at the glorious mountain?” Tohri cupped their own cheeks dreamily, “Ohh, I can’t wait…!”

“Let’s be real here, you, Kazuaki-kun, and Hitori-kun are probably gonna spend the night playing Love Live or whatever in our room.”

“That’s also a fun activity!” Tohri said, “And you, too, should try playing it once, Isa Souma!”

“I don’t have time for it.”

“Sheesh…” Tohri sighed, “You’re so cold, Isa Souma, no wonder you don’t have any lovers yet.”

“You speak as if you have one,” Isa responded bitterly, and then added, “At this moment of speaking.”

“At least I have been in a few relationships, unlike you!” Tohri bragged, “How will you ever feel the warmth and passion of love, with such cold, icy heart, Isa Souma?”

“Well, your lovers don’t usually last for more than a month,” Isa said – Tohri seemed rather insulted by this statement – “Have you considered being at least slightly less passionate and perhaps being a bit more respectful of privacy and personal space, so you don’t scare your lovers away?”

Tohri’s red was burning red now, both from embarrassment and anger. They were glaring viciously at Isa, pouting –

“What’s that supposed to mean, Isa Souma!!”

 

Somewhat strange, isn’t it?

Tohri, who’s our beautiful social butterfly, attracting people wherever they go and being actively charming – they may not be the best student at school and may have a few bones to pick with teachers, but befriending people is never a problem for them. 

And Isa, our quiet, almost anti social student – and yet that aside, he was perfect in every way, executing whatever task was given to him competently. To say that everyone likes him would be an exaggeration, but nobody could ever find any fault in him either. 

As the saying goes, opposites attract – perhaps that’s what’s happening here? Such contrast between them, but they get along anyway, don’t they?

 

“But Isa Souma, you are in desperate need of love! Its warmth will certainly melt your icy heart, and make you have feelings again?”

Isa sighed, “I do have feelings.

Tohri didn’t seem to be listening, though – “With that in mind, I, Nishikikouji Tohri, has decided to become your lover – ”

“No.”

Tohri’s face grew red again – this time, furious at the cold and blatant rejection. Clearly Tohri is very used to having things go their way –

Isa stopped walking, and reached out his hand to pat Tohri’s smooth, silky hair. 

“Because it’s unnecessary,” Isa said, “I know you do love me. You don’t have to be my lover for me to know that.”

“Ah…”

These words seem to have moved Tohri, as they had some tears brimming by their eyes in happiness. They readily wiped it away, though, with a proud smile on their face. 

“Isa Souma!” Tohri held Isa in their arms tightly, “I knew it! There is still some good in you after all!”

“You speak as if I’m a villain…”

 

_...but it’s true.  _

_ Tohri… is one of the few people who I believe cares about me – _

_ – at least I’d like to believe that.  _


End file.
